Agibot (智元机器人), a startup focusing on general-purpose humanoid robotics, recently bagged an undisclosed amount of money from Baidu.venture in an angel+ round of funding, tech media outlet 36kr reported yesterday.
The round came less than three months after the previous angel round in February this year, which roped in investors including Hillhouse Capital, Miracle Plus and GL Ventures.
Following the latest fundraising, the company’s reported capital base grew from 43.36 million yuan (US$6.13) to 48.47 million yuan, tianyancha.com, a business registration information provider, revealed.
Headquartered in Shanghai, Agibot is dedicated to combining AI technologies and robotics to develop general-purpose humanoid robots and embodied AI, a bandied-about term popularized by Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVidia.
Agibot has joined a number of established firms and up-and-coming startups to venture into humanoid robotics, with a so-called long-term vision to build competitive products and an ecosystem.
According to the company, it aims to construct the next-generation mass-produced robots that are highly intelligent, utilitarian and can relieve humans in certain roles in the real world.
Public records show that the company is a venture involving the twenty-something AI scientist Peng Zhihui, better known by his online alias Zhi Huijun. Peng, a larger-than-life figure on China’s budding AI scene, joined Huawei Technologies in 2020 as a “prodigy” engineer and quit last December to set up shop on his own.
